Monday, November 4, 2013

Normally when I do a Gopher hoops recruiting round-up I try to make sure to cover several players at once, but let's be honest after the signings of Josh Martin, Nate Mason, and Carlos Morris there's only one story in town and that's Reid Travis, the guy who is going to be making his decision this Friday at 3:30. As usual when my head is spinning and there's too much to make sense of, I will do this in list form. Here is the story so far:

1. Reid Travis, from De La Salle, is part of the big 3 of Minnesota's 2014 class along with Tyus Jones (definitely not a Gopher) and Rashad Vaughn (could still be, but won't decide until Spring most likely). He is ranked as the 45th best player in the class by 247sports, with a composite industry ranking of the 35th best player. He's ranked 23rd by ESPN and the 5th best PF in the class. He seems lukewarm on the Gophers.

2. Exit Tubby, enter Richard Pitino. Reports surface of Travis visiting campus and practice regularly. According to 247sports he's taken five unofficials to the Minnesota campus since Pitino's hiring. My dad, who attended De La Salle, is elected to their Hall of Fame (go dad!). While there, he takes the opportunity to asked Coach Thorsen about Travis. Thorsen tells him that since Pitino has been hired Reid has gotten very interested in the U and they're very much in the mix.

3. Travis cuts his list to his Final Four - Minnesota, Gonzaga, Stanford, and Duke.

4. Despite being on campus all the time, for unofficials and just hanging around, when Travis starts taking his official visits he includes the Gophers. Not long after his official to Minnesota, he drops Gonzaga from his list. Because of Travis's standing as an excellent student who takes academics very seriously, Duke and Stanford are generally considered the favorites, although nobody is dismissing the Gophers (also an excellent academic school, if not on par with the other two).

5. Travis announces he will be making his decision on November 8th at De La Salle. This leads some to speculate he's going to be a Gopher because why would he announce in front of a bunch of hometown people if he's just going to break their hearts? This is a poor assumption because, off the top of my head, Harrison Barnes announced he was going to UNC over Iowa State (and others) in the Ames High School gym.

6. A top 100 recruit, Michael Humphrey, commits to Stanford. The Travis family quickly informs media that this will have no affect on Reid's decision. Stanford remains in the mix.

7. Rumors begin to swirl that Duke may be out of the mix. Two gopherhole.com posters claiming to have sources (GuyFawkes and another poster who I can not find now but I think might have been die hard Gopher and if somebody can point me to the post I will give proper credit) both claim that Duke is out of the mix, and it's between the Gophers and Stanford. Message board rumors need to be taken with a large grain of salt, however both were saying the same thing and both are long time posters at the message board and not johnny come latelys who appeared to pop up to cause trouble or dick around.

8. Kevon Looney, at top 20 national recruit and one of the top PFs in the country, commits to UCLA over Duke. The Blue Devils gain a little bit of traction on Reid again (according to 247's Crystal Ball, a useful tool to see where the national winds are blowing).

9. This tweet from Evan Daniels comes out today:

Reid Travis, who is ranked No. 40 overall in the calls of 2014, will decide this week. Minnesota or Stanford?
— Evan Daniels (@EvanDanielsFOX) November 4, 2013

When asked for more, he said this:

I believe that Reid Travis is deciding between Minnesota & Stanford. RT @DukeOfHoops how about Duke?
— Evan Daniels (@EvanDanielsFOX) November 4, 2013

10. It is announced that Travis will be attending the Gopher exhibition game tonight, just four days before he makes his decision official. Not necessarily indicative of anything, but certainly not bad news.

I don't know if this is standard practice, but it certainly isn't a bad sign.

13. The one and only GopherLady, Nadine Babu, tweets:

After talking to my sources, I have a good feeling (for the 1st time) that Reid Travis will commit to the #Gophers.
— Nadine Babu (@NadineBabu) November 4, 2013

14. Many chants are busted out at the exhibition game of "We Want Reid."

15. National recruiting media starts to make a run at Travis to the Gophers, and it stands at 34% Gophers vs. 66% Duke, with 5 of the last 6 predictions going to Minnesota.

Is that everything? Did I miss something? Man I tell you this is rough. With the access you can get to recruiting experts via twitter and message boards it's almost too much to take when a recruit of Travis's' caliber starts to look like he might come to your favorite team. Program changer? Not in my opinion simply because I think it's too early in Pitino's tenure for that, but this would be huge and a great way to kick off his first recruiting class. I am going to play way, way too much attention to twitter the rest of the week.